Financial Engines Reviews

I have been working at Financial Engines full-time

Pros – Great perks, work/life balance and benefits.

Cons – Not allot of internal career growth opportunities.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Financial Engines full-time for more than a year

Pros – FE has a wonderful balance of academic theory and real life application. It's wonderful to have a job in finance where you know the organization is really trying to help people (small or big account). You can sleep well at night. There are high standards here, great managers, top management is really accessible, incredible work life balance, and you don't have to wear a suit to work. The work is engaging and the culture is just plain happy. No big egos here. FE is the best place to work at.

Cons – The main office is in Sunnyvale.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Financial Engines

Pros – This is a great starter company for financial services or a good place to escape the pressure of the brokerage world.

Cons – There are no defined career ladders here. Also, the compensation will depend on your job title and which location you work at.

Advice to Senior Management – Create career ladders.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Financial Engines

Pros – Salary was very good, benefits great, people in the trenches were competent and fun to work with. Holiday and PTO typical of most companies. The best part of working there was knowing you were helping folks to utilize financial benefits provided by their companies but never fully explained. The product is priceless and the results of using FE as my own 401k adviser during one of the worst economic downturns resulted in my being able to move and purchase a home with my 401k.

Cons – Some of the Senior Management group did not always seem up to the job they were hired for and misused funds in my opinion.

Advice to Senior Management – Overall CEO did excellent job of steering company and was tireless in the execution of his duty. Where I would say he went wrong was in the process for adding and terminating senior management. It is hard for an employee to watch good folks being let go.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Financial Engines

Pros – While I met some of the smartest people in the corporate world here, environment is very collegial and not cut-throat. There are many Stanford/Berkeley phds, and ex-stanford professors in investment management. The environment is very academic and encourages learning. People work hard but make time to help others. Health/vacation benefits are great. The recreation room is also great. Free beverages (sodas, sparkling water, etc.) and breakfast/snack foods.

Cons – Salary is a bit below industry.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Financial Engines

Pros – The mission of the company is very inspiring. Financial Engines provides top-notch investment advice to thousands of people for a fraction of the price typically charged by investment advisors. Employees are passionate and unified in this mission.

Cons – The executive management team consistently overcommits which results in people being stretched too thin. This leads to mistakes and re-work and ultimately slows things down. Morale is also down because people are burnt out.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to stay true to the mission, but work with employees to figure out a realistic workload so that we're not on a path for people to burn out and leave.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Financial Engines

Pros – It used to be a very nice company when it just started where people were nice with bunch of great ideas.

Cons – No career growth with very low compensation. Management harassment all over the place with no HR to protect you. Company full of management lunatics that only worry about what they put in their pockets. Many good people including executive management leaving company as they feel company hasn't changed and have no future. Engineering and QA has been outsourced to India that lead to very poor product quality that over time is just getting worse and worse. Server side is extremely unstable and crashing all the time. Basically, it's not about people, it's about how much money management can put in their pockets.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire professional management that cares about people and their career growth. STOP OUTSOURCING JOBS TO INDIA and START INVESTING MONEY INTO AMERICAN ECONOMY!!! Hire professional HR that can protect their employees and not just cover management mistakes. Executive management should stop flying in the clouds and start facing reality. You're all leaving in some kind of dream world of "Financial Fantasy" that doesn't exist.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Financial Engines

Pros – I really believed in what the company is doing by making financial advice more egalitarian. I've met some wonderful and smart people there.

Cons – Departments have different criteria for promotions. This left you wondering why some teams were constantly promoting their people while others were not. Plus the teams are constantly being reorganized. Also there is a culture gap between the various offices that caused friction.

Advice to Senior Management – The flat organizational structure doesn't give people enough opportunity to continue to build their skill sets. There is not incentive to stay on if there is no where to go.

I have been working at Financial Engines

Pros – It is one of the most employee friendly companies that I have worked for. This is shown by the fact that there th average tenure of folks in the Software Development Team is 8 years. The management is really open and communicates very effectively with the employees.

The company has a very generous PTO plan with all the standard benefits and 401(K) plan with company match. Also the company has been paying really good bonus for the last few years (yes in this economy!!)

The office in Palo Alto also has a game room with Big Screen TV, Wii, Pin ball machine, snooker table & Foosball. Plus we have free soda, juices etc. Hey it's no google, but combined with the work life balance and the benefits I think it is a great place to work.

Cons – We are constantly fighting fires in the Software Development side. There is never a lull period where we can work on good projects. I guess this is the issue with smaller companies where we give in to customer demands always.

Advice to Senior Management – The Management should set more realistic annual goals. We set the standard really high and are unable to achieve it often.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Financial Engines

Pros – Great people. Great Ideas. Great team work.

Cons – Constant change sometimes feels like churn as opposed to innvovation.

Advice to Senior Management – Go public soon. It has been a looong time.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend